[Carpediem]

Hi gang,

I don't pretend to really understand all of this but let me describe my situation. I have 3 computers at home:

1. my wife's PC cabled in my new airport extreme "pre-n" base station
2. my MacBook Pro 17" (1 month old) with an internal "n" wireless capability
3. my daughters 1.83 ghz iMac with built in "g" wireless capability
4. I also have an airport express plugged into my stereo to run iTunes which I assume is "g"

Plugged into my airport extreme is a printer (via cat5) with networking ability, an xbox 360 (cat 5), my wife's pc (cat 5) and a western digital hard drive (via usb)

My questions revolve around the fact that I have this mixed network.

Question 1 - Does the "g" iMac slow down my airport extreme router?

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. I really wish the apple store people would have told me this when I bought it 2 weeks ago. The machine is for my daughter in 5th grade and perfectly fine for her needs. I had no idea it would actually drag my laptop speed down or I would have upgraded. Ugg.

Question 2 - Does the Airport express on my stereo slow down my airport extreme router?

I have no clue here.

Question 3 - Is the slow down a big deal?

I can't figure out how to measure the speed of my network. I'm sure there is a software tool or widget or something but I have no clue what it is. I read on some net articles that it is a huge deal .. in others I read that it only matters when both the iMac and the Macbook Pro are hitting it at the same time. Again .. remember .. I'm clueless.

Question 4 - Should I care?

Everything works now .. should I even worry about this?

Question 5 - If I should fix it, how do I run multiple routers?

I still have an extra linksys "g" router. I know there is a way to somehow add it to my network and assign the iMac (and possibly airport express) to it and then ramp up the airport extreme for my Macbook Pro. I am, however, clueless as to how to accomplish this. Can anyone show mercy on me or at least point the way to a guide?

Cheers,
David

[ghporter]

1-yes, any G device on the wireless network will slow it down. It's unclear if it's a "minor" slowdown or that the whole network slows to G speeds.

2-probably, since the Express is a G device.

3-were you happy with your G network before you bought the new base station? If so, then it's not a big deal.

4-that depends on if you "need" that extra speed or not.

5-you would run your old AirPort (or whatever) as normal, and then set up the NEW base station with a different network name (SSID). You might even want to set things up so that you run your broadband into the NEW base station's WAN port and connect the old AirPort to one of the new one's LAN ports; using the AirPort Admin Utility, tell the old base to not distribute IPs on the Network tab. Viola! You now have two separate wireless networks on the same subnet, one for N and one for G. Tell your G devices to connect to the G network only and all N devices will run at their faster speed.